


very, very extraordinary

by withoutwords



Category: EastEnders (TV)
Genre: Fluff, Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-01
Updated: 2019-12-01
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:01:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,411
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21627250
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/withoutwords/pseuds/withoutwords
Summary: “So that’s it then,” Mick says as he drops down next to Callum at the Vic. They’d been to Kathy’s and then the Albert and now they’re here – almost everyone’s here. Callum’s happy.“What?”“You and Ben. True love and all that.”
Relationships: Callum "Halfway" Highway/Ben Mitchell
Comments: 31
Kudos: 263





	very, very extraordinary

**Author's Note:**

> for a fic prompt at tumblr, asking for a story where everyone else is telling the boys they're in love, and they eventually work it out themselves. 
> 
> I'm so tired today, I hope you all enjoy this haha xxxx
> 
> (title from that song called LOVE, surprise!)

**i.**

The first time someone says it, Callum is really, really drunk. It’s New Years, and as much as he’s never been big on making resolutions, it feels like the right time to start. The year had been good, bad and ugly, and he was ready to put the painful parts behind him.

2020 is all about moving on.

“So that’s it then,” Mick says as he drops down next to Callum at the Vic. They’d been to Kathy’s and then the Albert and now they’re here – almost everyone’s here. Callum’s happy.

“What?”

“You and Ben. True love and all that.”

He blinks. 

“Honestly, I figured it was just gonna be a flash in the pan thing, y’know? Like Ben Mitchell was your introductory gay before you moved on to ... open fields and all that. Or somethin’.”

“Introductory gay?” Callum repeats, and he’d probably be a lot more offended if he wasn’t so drunk and so unsure how serious Mick was being right now. He could never really tell, even when he was sober.

“But I can see you’re happy, lad, and he’s good to you, so ... I’m glad. You found the love you deserve.” Mick slaps him on the thigh, like that’s that and they don’t need to talk about it any more. 

“Love?” Callum repeats to himself, but Mick’s long gone. 

When Ben staggers over later and sits on his lip, Callum’s still open mouthed and staring. “What’s happened?”

“I’ve got no idea.”

**ii.**

Lexi wears the same princess dress for eight days straight. Lola tries to take it off her when she’s sleeping – at least to air it out a little – but Lexi wakes up every time. Apparently it’s an issue, but Callum thinks it’s hilarious. If he could get away with it as an adult, he’d probably do the same.

“What’s your favourite thing?” Lexi asks him while they have a tea party in her room together.

“Um, I donno actually.”

“Is it your tie?” she asks with the same cheeky smirk her father gets, and Callum can’t help but laugh. 

“No, not really.”

“Well you’ve got to have a favourite thing. Katie’s is her LOL Doll and Patty’s is her snap bracelet, and Nanny’s is that sparkly parrot broach that her mummy gave to her. See?”

“Right, I see,” Callum agrees, serious faced as he stirs pretend milk into his pretend tea. “Maybe I have to think about it.”

“Okay. Just tell me when you decide.”

“I will.”

Lexi gets the miniature plastic cake out of the oven and brings it over, sitting back down, cross-legged in front of Callum. He’s always loved kids, but he’s also completely blown away by getting to have this relationship with his boyfriend’s daughter. He feels blessed.

“And what’s daddy’s favourite thing? Except you of course.”

Lexi laughs, a small giggle that turns into a belly laugh that Callum can’t help but feel infected by. He laughs too.

“What?”

“You’re silly!” she tells him, her face bright red now. “Daddy’s favourite thing is you, you know that!”

“Oh,” Callum says, feeling a little like he’s been hit by a truck. “You think so?”

“Duh! When you’re in love with someone that’s just what happens. Do I have to teach you everything?”

When Callum laughs again, it comes out almost hysterical.

**iii.**

Having dinner at Kathy’s had been their first mistake. They should have kicked Stuart out of the flat and had it there, but no, Ben insisted, “Everyone’s gone, Cal, they won’t be back for hours.” 

Ben had made cannelloni and they’d had it in front of the TV and what started as an innocent date very quickly dissolved into the pair of them half naked and Ben whispering into Callum’s ear about all the filthy things he planned to do with him.

Callum had been working non-stop for days and hadn’t seen Ben, properly, for even longer, so he was keyed up and unsure he was even going to make it to the bedroom.

“Jesus, Ben, please,” he was groaning, arching his back, while Ben sat on his thighs and rocked down into him.

“Please what?”

“Please anything,” Callum gasps, a hand around Ben’s neck to pull him down for another kiss. It was a lie, and they both knew it, because Callum was spreading his legs wider and Ben was getting to his knees in front of the couch, and the words didn’t need to be said.

Callum didn’t have to beg, as much as Ben would love to hear it.

“Hello?” a voice rings out as the front door slams open, and Callum feels every trace of arousal drop heavy like lead. Thankfully Ben’s alert enough to quickly grab a throw rug and cover them both with it – not that it hides the very obvious state that they’re in.

“Jesus,” Callum hears Ian say, while Bobby laughs and disappears upstairs.

“You weren’t supposed to be back,” Ben yells at his mum, tugging on the jeans he’d left on the floor. Callum is too embarrassed to move. He just sits there as everyone argues around him, as Ben goes into the kitchen to remind his brother, hey, at least he’s getting some.

“Oh, Callum, it’s okay love,” Kathy says, obviously trying not to laugh as she gives his shoulder a pat.

“I’m sorry, we were just...” he tries to say, but Kathy stops him with a scoff.

“I might be older than you but I ain’t dead, I know what you was just.”

Callum hides his face in his hands. “Sorry.”

“Oh, don’t be silly. You’re in love. You’ve gotta enjoy these things while you can.”

“Uh,” Callum looks at her to see she’s just smiling kindly, no look in her eye, no motives. “Thanks.”

**iv.**

Lola drags Callum out to E20 one night, while Ben and Jay are working on some project for the car lot. Callum feels like she might be trying to punish them for choosing work over their partners, but he doesn’t mind. Lola’s one of his best friends these days, they always have a good time together.

“Drinking game,” Lola says, and it sounds nothing like a question.

“No, no.”

“Yes, yes. And shots, too!”

They end up sitting at the bar, a line of shots that have a dirty name in front of them. Callum hasn’t had a big night of drinking since New Years, so he’s already regretting this decision.

“Okay, so I say something that Jay does that pisses me off and if Ben does it too you have to drink as well, okay?”

“That’s not a game, we’re just gonna get bladdered.”

“Good! Alright, so ... Jay always leaves wet towels right in the middle of the bathroom floor, yeah? Like, the hook is right there you twat, just put it on the hook, god!”

Callum watches her do her shot with a grin, still watching when she’s wiping her mouth and looking at Callum sceptically. His glass is still full. “Seriously.”

Callum shrugs. “I donno, he’s tidy. I’m the messy one.”

“Fine. You go.”

“Umm.”

Lola scoffs at him. “Oh come on Callum, I’ve known Ben a lot longer than you, don’t try to pretend he’s perfect.” 

“I ain’t! Alright, alright, I’ve got one,” he tells her, waving his hand. “I hate when he comes over and he’s had a bad day and like, won’t talk about his feelings? I mean, he’ll tell me what’s wrong and all that but he won’t say, this is why I’m bothered? Y’know? I mean he’s always been there to push me out my comfort zone but won’t let me do the same for him? Y’know?”

Lola gives him a look, says, “Jesus,” and does her shot. He’s not sure if that means Jay’s the same, or she just really needs to get drunk.

Callum has his own drink. “What? That’s a thing!”

“Yeah, but I meant, when he puts empty milk bottles back in the fridge or, or takes three hours to get up and ready in the morning or...”

Callum grins, realising how much she knows Ben.

“Look at you! You’re so in love you actually like that about him. Ugh!”

“That ain’t...” Callum starts to say, but gets lost, again, in that word. Love. It seems so easy for everyone else to throw around, but it feels so big to Callum. So heavy.

“Come on, no more of this game. It don’t work when the love is blinding,” Lola teases, and drags Callum over to a table instead.

He quickly changes the subject.

**v.**

Callum’s always been thankful to Jay. Without him, he knows he wouldn’t be where he is today. Stable, confident and in a meaningful relationship with someone who knows him completely. He’s given Callum so many chances over the last year – and now that he’s dropped the copper idea and taken the management role, he owes Jay even more.

Which is why he can’t do this with Ben.

“No,” he says over the phone, matter-of-fact. “I’m working.”

“Yeah, but it’s dead there, ain’t it,” Ben says with a little laugh, always the first to enjoy his own jokes. Callum hates himself for smiling.

“Meet me at mine at 7, alright?”

“But that’s so far away, and I’m so, so, lonely.”

Callum scoffs at him, burying his face in one hand. “You saw me like two hours ago.”

“Forever ago!”

Callum is still smiling, but he’s not letting Ben get away with this. Every now and then he gets in one of his moods and Callum’s always entertaining them. (Honestly, it’s not a hardship.) But he has work to do, and he needs his job. “If a client came in I’d be ruined Ben. It’s not happening. I’ll see you at 7.”

He hangs up without giving Ben a chance to argue. He puts it on silent, too, because he knows Ben well enough that he won’t be giving up there. And he’s right. Callum’s phone buzzes endlessly, over and over against his desk, taunting him as he tries to write up the monthly reports. He’s bad enough at mathematics when he hasn’t got a needy boyfriend hassling him.

After a few more attempts at calling, Ben sends a text. Then another. Then another. Callum can’t help himself. He reads them.

He’s an idiot.

_ Come on, Cal, I need ya _

_ I’m so lonely and I miss ya. I wanna be back in bed, want you inside me, screaming me name _

_ Don’t ya want that too? _

_ Tell me how ya want it _

Callum’s going to kill him. He’s going to kill him and hide him in the parlour and no one will find out. He’s got it all worked out.

“What’s your problem?” Jay asks, coming into the office and making Callum jump almost clean out of his seat. Having his boss walk in when he's half horny and half homicidal is not great for Callum’s resolve.

“Uh, nothing, just,” he shakes his phone, knuckles white where they’re clenched around it.

“Ben?”

“How’d you guess?”

“’Cause I was just over there and he wouldn’t shut up about ya. He wants me to let you leave for lunch.”

Callum’s plans to murder Ben are becoming clearer and clearer in his mind. “Oh, right, sorry. Ignore him. He’s just ...”

“In love?” Jay says with a grin. “Yeah, I got that, thanks.”

“I wasn’t...”Callum trails off. He feels the blush creeping up his neck.

“God, you’re both as bad as each other. Just go, wouldya? Be back by half one.”

Callum’s phone buzzes again.

He goes.

+i.

It happens on a slow Sunday, some time in May. They wake up with the sheets twisted around their legs, and kiss good morning for so long Ben’s lips are bright red. Callum gives him a lazy blowjob then fucks him, later, slow and deep and pushed against the shower wall.

Ben makes pancakes and Callum makes coffee and it’s already 2pm when they sit down to watch a movie.

“Nothing sad,” Callum insists, and Ben groans.

“You don’t like sad, or scary, or violent. You wanna watch _Toy Story_ again? _Frozen_?”

Callum laughs and kicks at him with a socked foot. “A comedy. Something good.”

Ben puts on _Death At A Funeral_ , because he thinks he’s hilarious, but Callum doesn’t mind. He likes this one. He puts his feet up, and Ben puts his head in his lap, and they’re warm together on the couch and Callum knows he’s never felt more like he belonged.

“Can I tell you something?” he asks, when the end credits are rolling and Ben has sat up to plaster himself against Callum’s side instead.

“Always.”

“It’s uh ... you know. Important.”

Ben turns so that he can look Callum in the eye. He looks worried. “Serious?”

“Sure.”

“Bad?”

Callum shrugs. That’s not really for him to decide. “I don’t think so. I just ... it’s pretty new for me, that’s all.”

Ben still looks like he’s about to lose his lunch, so Callum forges ahead.

“Everyone kept telling me that we were in love, yeah? You and me. And at first I just thought, that’s weird for people to assume but they mean right by it, it’s fine.”

“Babe - ”

“But I get it now, that it’s true, I mean, of course it’s true. I mean, I loved Chris, and Whit, but this ain’t ... this ain’t just love Ben. I’m in love with you. You’re ... no one in my whole life has meant more to me than you do, right now. You get what I mean? I just ...”

Ben seems to take an endless breath before moving in to kiss Callum, soft and slow and inching open like he can’t contain the disbelief. “Babe,” he says in the small space between them, and from here Callum can see there’s a small tear in Ben’s eye.

“I’m sorry it took me so long to work out,” Callum says with a smile. “I knew what I felt I just, didn’t know the rest of it. And it didn’t matter if people thought it, or didn’t think it, or whatever ... it mattered that they could see we was special. Because we are. You are. I love you so much.”

Ben kisses him again, and gathers Callum in his arms, and tells his cheek and ear and neck the same, “I love you, I love you, I love you.”

It was just a word, and not so heavy.

(Callum feels like he’s floating, anyway.)

**Author's Note:**

> thefancyspin.tumblr.com


End file.
